Assessment of environmental risk of radioactively contaminated industrial tailings

INTAILRISK
Problem statement The INTAILRISK project: Project results Database Project partner information Links Home
Objectives Participants Methods Test sites

This project investigates the industrial waste resulting from the use of radioactive coal and from alumina industry in the Western Balban Countries to assess methods for the efficient treatment of these wastes. It considers the direct risk resulting from the wastes in their immediate neighborhood and the risk from dispersal in the environment through surface and groundwater. It also considers the environmental and the health risk of industrial by-products that are based on the waste material.

The project studies several test sites located in the Western Balkan countries and compares them with sites located in the EU and outside: wastes of coal mines and coal burning power plants, as well as from aluminum industry.

The aim of the project is to:

  • assess the presence and type of radionuclides in the primary and waste products, and their parameters
  • analyse and identify the pathways for dispersion of radionuclides (erosion, dust re-suspension, surface water, groundwater) in the neighborhood of the wastes, and define the impact of the wastes on the ecosystem
  • assess the impact on health of the population in the plants and in the vicinity of the wastes from the presence of radionuclides (gas-emission, inhalation)
  • define the risk from the use of by-products of the wastes (building material that contains fly ash, disposal in engineered surface impoundments and landfills, industrial product based on waste material).
Based on the results of these case studies, the project
- examines the radiation protection management and the monitoring practice for the investigated test-sites
- develops recommendations for each type of tailing dump in order to optimise the existing protection and remediation practice
- promotes the adoption of existing legislations and regulations in the participating Western Balkan countries in conformity with the EU directives for harmonization of radiation protection